It's kind of a gray area
by Killed in the crossfire
Summary: What starts as an irrational way to stop a shipment from ending up in the wrong hands becomes an undercover mission for Robin when he's given the chance to get inside info on Slade. Red X in this story, but no OC's or pairings
1. Chapter 1

**Title- It's sort of a gray area**

_**Warnings:**_ Slight language, very AU, and I'm going to change facts around so that they suit me

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It had started the way most situations did, with Young Justice getting a mission. It wasn't an exciting mission. They were only supposed to oversee the transport of xenothium, which was only made slightly more difficult by Robin's absence (off going solo with Batman again, he had said.)

Of course, all of that quickly changed when a figure in a skull mask appeared.

"Hey, what's that?" Kid Flash asked as he saw a black blur land on the truck. Aqualad got into a defensive stance, using his waterbearers to jump on the truck.

"Trouble."

A deep electronic chuckle came from the figure. "Well, if you insist." He said, and his outfit was revealed to be mostly black, with a red X on the chest and on the white mask.

"What is your business here?"

"Hey man, I have no beef with you. Just let me take this fancy cargo you got here and I'll be on my way." Within seconds, all of Young Justice was attacking him. However, he seemed to have planned their attacks before even they had. He threw restraints at Kid flash and Aqualad, restraining their legs and arms, respectively. Artemis was encased in an indestructible net, and Miss Martian was trapped by a sticky substance that she couldn't get rid of. Only Superboy was still able to fight, and the mysterious figure simply sidestepped all of his attempts with a catlike grace. Quickly taking an 'X' shaped weapon from his belt, the figure cut a hole in the truck, ducking in and out in no time, and disappearing in a way that the team had only seen Robin do before.

"Oh crap…What are we going to tell Batman?" Kid Flash asked as he hobbled to a standing position.

**Robin/Red X**

He groaned as he leaned against a building in nowheresville Pennsylvania. Okay, so he had the stuff he needed. That was good, at least. The problem was, he had just buried himself in _way _too deep. At the moment, he was a bad guy, and that never turned out well.

He should've told someone that the xenothium was headed straight to a major baddie. Kaldur would've told Red Tornado, or Batman would've stopped the shipment… Everything was looking less stupid than playing dress-up and stealing the stuff himself, come on! Where was he planning on putting it, certainly not the batcave! Batman would sniff it out in a second. Still, it hadn't felt bad, going solo, completely ignoring the illegal parts of it, and he _had _stopped the stuff from reaching a madman who would use it to turn the whole world into bran muffins or something.

So, really, while the whole 'stealing a highly dangerous and valuable substance' thing was bad, the whole 'stopping said substance from turning everyone into baked goods' was good.

He figured it was sort of a gray area.

Now, if only he could figure out what to do with the stuff… He went to take it from his belt and noticed it was stuck.

'Oh no…oh no no no no no…' He moved the cape, ready to struggle with it, but noticed it was glowing slightly. He also noticed that his previous (very weak) power source had fallen out while he was running.

"It'll power the suit…well, that solves one problem…" Suddenly, he heard a soft thump from behind him. He spun around and his hand flew to his utility belt.

"Calm down, I'm not here to fight." The man said. He was wearing a costume that was mostly black with silver weapons and a full face mask that was half black, half orange. "I just heard about your little stunt with the junior justice league. I was very impressed. However, I became curious. I was sure I knew of everyone in the trade, but I've never heard of you before." Robin shrugged.

"You could say I'm a newbie."

"Ah, I see. Well, I guess I should get down to business then." He stepped closer to Robin. "This business is tough on newcomers, as I know from personal experience…"

"What's your angle?" Robin asked suspiciously. The man chuckled.

"I simply want to offer my services. Take you under my wing. I have resources to help you, resources I was not granted when I was starting out."

"And the catch?"

"I scratch your back, you scratch mine later on." Robin shook his head.

"I work alone. Sorry." The man shrugged.

"I won't force you. But think about it, and if you change your mind, give me a call." He threw a weapon towards Robin, who ducked. When he looked up, the man was gone. Robin looked at the wall behind him and pulled out the weapon. On it there was writing.

"Slade." _Shit._

**Love it? Hate it? Want more? Want it deleted? Tell me in a review! Keep in mind though, this was for the most part ridiculously old, and the rest was written late at night, so other chapters will be better. I know that this is kind of confusing right now, but it will (hopefully) be explained in other chapters. Also, I know I'm not the best with grammar and such, so if you would like to be my Beta, message/review telling me!**


	2. Chapter 2

**` Wow, I feel loved. I didn't think anyone would like the first chapter, and then, you know, people did! And it made me happy…I'm socially awkward. ON WITH THE STORY!**

**PS- I really only have a vague idea where this story is going, so if you guys have any suggestions, don't be shy. There's no such thing as a stupid idea, especially where I'm concerned.**

Robin picked up his backpack from the spot underneath Gotham Academy's bleachers, changing quickly into the civvies he had in it. He put the Red X uniform in the false bottom he used to store his Robin costume, Slade's 'card' lying on top. He zipped up the bag, ignoring the weight that seemed to settle in it. Luckily, Gotham Academy wasn't too far from Wayne manor, and Robin was able to walk home fairly quickly.

"Hello, Master Richard, how was the tutoring session?" Alfred asked as Robin walked in the door.

"It went very well, Alfred. I think that Ron is really starting to get a good grasp on Algebra." Robin had told Alfred and Bruce that he was going to be tutoring another student as a cover. Neither of them had cried foul, so he assumed that they believed him. "I'm gonna head upstairs and get some Robin work done, if that's okay with you." Alfred nodded and Robin bolted up the stairs. The second his door closed, his composed mask slipped.

'_Okay, nothing to worry about, right? Just, make something up! Yeah, go hacking again, and find the information you found before, only this time show it to Batman instead of playing dress up.' _Robin began messing with his wristcom, surfing through firewalls and password encrypted pages before he finally found what he was looking for. _'See? Everything's going to be fine.' _Suddenly, a voice that sounded suspiciously like Kid Flash spoke-or thought-whatever. _'Are you sure about that?' _The voice asked. Robin sighed. _'No. It's probably going to blow up in my face, and I'll get taken off the team and probably get banned from crime-fighting, or worse…awesome.' _Robin tried his best to look confused as he ran into Bruce's study.

"Hey, Bruce? Isn't John Marks on probation?" The bat in question grunted, but paused in the work he was doing-probably for Waynetech- and began searching in the Bat archives.

"Last time I checked, why?"

"Because it says here that he's one of the scientists handling the research regarding the xenothium shipment the team was transporting today." Bruce stopped typing in shock, then began even faster than before.

"_What? _When did you find this out?" _'This afternoon. I couldn't get a hold of you so I made a makeshift suit out of one of yours that got trashed in battle and stole the xenothium out of the truck. Oh, and by the way, a major baddie offered to give me inside information right after I did, so I'm in a position to finally capture him and learn inside secrets about his allies.'_

"Just now! I was checking my wristcom to see how the team did and it popped up!" Finally, Bruce got to the file he was looking for.

"He had six months of probation left, but someone terminated it." John Marks had been involved in illegal experiments involving human mutations, but any proof had been inconclusive to his association with it, so he'd gotten off with some heavy probation and a couple slaps to the wrist. "This isn't good…he's probably going to use that stuff to turn everyone into fruitcakes!" Bruce yelled.

"Or bran muffins." Robin added, but Bruce ignored him.

"Suit up and be ready to go in five." He said shortly, and Robin quickly left the room.

'_Well, that went better than expected.' _

**Kid Flash**

"We are so dead." Wally groaned as he collapsed on the couch next to Superboy who was already watching static. Artemis and M'gann were working with hair brushes to get the goop out of the Martian's hair.

"Yeah, we know, Kid Mouth, you've only said it a million times." Artemis said, rolling her eyes.

'_Jerk.'_

"Recognized. Robin- B01 Batman-(I dunno Batman's number) Wally sighed.

"Time to go to the mission room." The entire team trudged to said room with heavy hearts. Kaldur was the first to speak.

"We apologize for our poor performance." He said, and Batman looked like he was going to pop a vein.

"What do you mean?"

"Are you not here to reprimand us?" He asked, astonished. Robin interjected.

"We're here because the xenothium was headed to a crazy guy with a history of human experimentation." Wally grinned.

"Then we didn't mess up so badly!" Batman's eye twitched.

"What do you mean, mess up?" Wally shrank back, and once again Kaldur stepped forward.

"While we were overseeing the transportation of the xenothium, a masked figure attacked us and stole the cargo. After he left, all of us but Superboy were incapacitated. All he left behind was this." Kaldur held out a red 'X' shaped weapon, the same one that had been used to break into the truck. Robin looked curiously at it.

"What _is _that?"

"He used it as a knife or saw of some sort to get into the back of the truck." Batman pinched the bridge of his nose.

"This is just fantastic." He muttered to himself. Robin shrugged.

"At least John Marks doesn't have it, right?" Batman looked to be biting back his irritation, something no one on the team but Robin had seen before.

"But now it's in the hands of an unknown villain. Robin, stay here. I'll contact the league and take action from there."

**Really didn't know how to end that chapter…so yeah. John Marks is a figment of my imagination. And once again, I need ideas! And a Beta, a Beta would be nice, too. So if you have ideas or are good with grammar/spelling, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE review telling me so! I don't really know what I'm doing here, I mean, I know how I want the story to end, but I don't know how to get there.**

**...my need for a Beta is intensified by the fact that I don't have the attention span to proofread my stuff.**

**Peace, love, and turtledoves,**

_**B.**_


	3. Chapter 3

**An: Hello! I seriously need ideas, people, doesn't matter how ridiculous they sound, I just need something!**

**Robin **

Everything seemed to get awkward quickly after Batman left.

"So, you guys got your cans kicked? Not asterous." Robin said, deciding that standing around in the mission room staring at the floor was getting boring. As he expected, Wally was the first to reply, speeding over to the other's side.

"You weren't there, dude! He was like, seven feet tall, and had more muscles than Supey, he was definitely a metahuman, and-"

"Why do I doubt that?" Robin chuckled as they began to leave the room, and Artemis snorted.

"Probably because Kid Mouth is lying."

"Knew it." Robin said smugly. He looked back at the other three members of the team and noticed M'gann pulling at her hair, a frustrated look on her face. "Um, Miss M? What exactly are you doing?" She grimaced.

"The villain used some sort of inorganic goop to restrain me, and I can't get it out of my hair." Robin swooped over to her and pretended to inspect the substance.

"Oh, I know what this is! It's used all the time in Gotham. You just have to wash it out, but don't use anything that lathers. The suds will make it worse. Use a conditioner." She nodded gratefully and flew out of the room straight to her shower.

"Conditioner? Really Rob? Just when I thought you couldn't get _less _manly." Wally teased. Robin rolled his eyes.

"It's either conditioner or butter, KF. And I don't think that you'd want _Megalicious's _hair to become greasy, do you? So, tell me about this villain." Wally proceeded to grossly exaggerate the tale, often having to have Artemis or Robin cry bullshit.

"So then, he just disappeared. I think he had teleportation powers." Surprisingly enough, Artemis seemed to agree, to Robin's intense glee. "After he left, Supey got Kaldur and I out of our restraints, and we got Arty and M'gann out of theirs, though obviously we didn't do so well with M'gann…" Robin nodded.

"So, basically, you guys just suck without me?" Robin teased, moving easily out of the way of Wally's fake punch.

"Shut up man, you couldn't have done better, he probably had a slot on his belt just for you, like he did us…" Coincidentally, he did, though not in the way Wally expected. It would holographically project images of him in his regular so that if needed, he could be in two places at once. He didn't originally think that he would need it, seeing as he wanted it to be a onetime thing, however, at the moment, he wasn't so sure.

"Hey Rob, you want to go play Black ops in my room?" Wally asked, and Robin grinned, though it was slightly strained.

"Hell yes!" They ran (or, really, Wally speeded, and Robin ran) to the redhead's room, and Robin practically collapsed onto the bed while the older boy closed the door.

"Alright, what's wrong?" Wally asked as he flopped onto the bed next to Robin.

"What do you mean?"

"You're not fooling me, dude. I know when something's eating you. What's going on?" Robin sighed.

"It's nothing really. Just something to do with Dick Grayson." Wally nodded.

"How _is _Dick Grayson doing?"

"He's beat. He's got to spend all day tutoring some kid who just doesn't understand life, and then he's got to deal with his best bud that promised him Black ops and instead chose to talk about feelings." Wally grinned.

"Sucks to be him, huh?" Robin nudged Wally in the ribs. "Okay, okay, I get the message." He stood up and turned on the Xbox. "But you know dude, you _can _tell me anything. I don't judge."

"Yeah man, I know."

**An: I really didn't know a good way to end this chapter, mainly because I had no ideas to go off of. The only idea I really have is that I might want Wally to find out about Robin being Red X, cause…I dunno… but, I am writing this for my like…three subscribers, so I'll give you guys an option. Or, a bunch of options**

**A: Wally finds out on his own**

**B: Robin tells Wally for some reason**

**C: Wally finds out with the rest of the team at the end of the story**

**D: No one on the team ever finds out and Red X is a mystery forever**

**E: other (please specify)**

**Please, review telling me what you think I should do, because I really need help with what I should do with this story. And once again, if you have ideas of your own, please tell me, because I desperately need ideas. And a beta. If you want to beta please tell me.**


	4. Chapter 4

**I'm so proud… I got a lot of ideas from reviewers last chapter, so now I have a lot to work off of! I'm sorry if you gave me an idea and I only partially incorporate it or barely incorporate it at all, but I'll try my best!**

**Here is the tally from the reviews I currently have:**

**A: (Wally finds out on his own) 1  
>B:(Robin tells Wally) 1 (or five, depending on how you look at it)<br>C: (Everyone finds out at the end of the story) 0  
>D:(No one ever finds out, like ever) 2<br>E: (other, please specify) 1 but I gotta say, the idea they had was pretty awesome. I'll put the review they gave me right here: **

**Batman and Alfred find out but no one on the team ever finds out and Red X is a mystery forever. So that's now an option to vote for, you know, if you like that. The letter shall be F.**

**You can still vote (or change your vote), because I'm still just kind of figuring out the plot right now.**

Robin POV:

It was 3:00 AM when Robin snuck down the hallway as quietly as possible, holding a small bag. Conner was a light sleeper, and Wally might not have been fully asleep after his 2:00 AM daily snack run, so he had to be careful. Quickly, he hacked the mountain's mainframe so that it wouldn't announce or record his departure, before silently leaving the mountain. Seconds later he stepped calmly out of a telephone booth in Pennsylvania, before taking out the contents of the bag. Inside there was a black jumpsuit with a red 'X' across the chest, as well as a skull mask. Quickly switching that with his civvies, he placed the hoodie, jacket, and jeans into the bag, and placed them in the telephone booth for safe keeping until he came back. Silently, he made his way across the city, and soon enough found himself back in the alley that he had been in just the night before.

"I can't believe I'm doing this." He mumbled.

"I can." A voice said from behind him. He turned around and saw a familiar figure walking towards him.

"Slade. I've-"

"You've changed your mind. You want to work with me, because you've realized that you won't make it anywhere without my help. You agree to become my apprentice, and in turn, help me out when the tables have turned on me. Is that were you were going to say?" Robin was silent. "I'll take that as a yes. Meet me at this address at ten o'clock tonight sharp. We'll get started on your training then." He threw a weapon similar to the one he had the night before, and once again, Robin ducked, but couldn't stop it from clipping his shoulder. "Don't be late." Slade said as Robin tugged it out of the wall, before stepping back into the shadows and seeming to disappear. Robin carefully pocketed the address, wishing to himself that Slade could use stationery instead. Sighing, he made his way back to the telephone booth, changed, and used the teleporter to go back to the thankfully still sleeping mountain. He silently made his way to his room, stuffed his bag under the bed, not the best hiding place, but it would do for now, and quickly stripped down to his boxers before jumping under the covers and falling asleep as his head hit the pillow.

(LinebreaklinebreaklinebreaK)

Robin woke up to the sound of a very persistent redhead banging on his door repeatedly.

"Rob? Are you okay in there? It's 12:30 dude, you've never slept this late before." Immediately all groggy recollection of whatever he'd been dreaming of left his mind, and all that remained was 'Holy-crap-I-slept-in' as he fell out of bed and rushed to the door. Completely disregarding his state of undress (except to grab his sunglasses off of his dresser), he flung it open, quickly moving to a position that would hide his wounded shoulder. 'Note to self: cleaning cuts takes priority over sleep from now on'

"Is it really that late? Have I missed anything?" Wally luckily seemed relatively unfazed by the sudden appearance of the half-naked boy.

"We got a call earlier from Bats saying that he was going to give us a status report later today. We all figured that you would be awake by the time we got it, but he could make the call at any moment, so…you know…get dressed?" Robin closed the door on the redhead and proceeded to change into his Robin suit. After all, if this was any other villain, he would be chomping at the bit to get in on the action, and he didn't want to tip anyone off by acting differently, right? …He knew he was right, he doesn't need you telling him so. Besides, Wally had been in uniform, so he assumed it was expected. When he left his room, Wally was still there. As Robin realized this, Wally grabbed his hand and dragged him away to the kitchen to feed him, because everyone knew that a hungry Robin was an irritable Robin.

(linebreak)

"So how late did you get to sleep last night, dude?" Wally asked as Robin chewed on his breakfast burrito. Robin shrugged.

"Late o'clock, late thirty…somewhere around there" 'About 3:30, actually. But who's counting?'

"Nice, dude." Wally clapped Robin on the shoulder, and the younger boy yelped. "You okay?" Wally asked, concern immediately filling his tone.

"Yeah. Hot cheese." Robin lied. Wally didn't look convinced. Luckily, they were interrupted by M'gann.

"Batman's sending a transmission, come to the mission room!" Robin grinned, glad for the green girl's timing.

Sure enough, when the two entered the room, Batman's face was blown up on the huge screen.

"Hey Bats, how is everything going?" Robin asked, knowing he was the only one comfortable enough around his mentor to begin a conversation with him.

"We're not having much luck. We checked out where the crime happened last night, but there seems to be little to no trace of our villain anywhere." Wally spoke next.

"We think he might be a metahuman. He vanished so quickly, it wouldn't be hard to think that he could transport himself." Once again, Robin was gleeful on the inside, no matter how composed he was on the outside. He was glad that no one had thought about how he had a tendency to vanish and connected him to the mysterious villain he'd yet to name.

"That's certainly a possibility, and we'll look into it. You'll be alerted if we find any new information." With that, the communication was ended.

"So, even the Batman is stumped? This guy is good." Artemis said flatly. Kaldur nodded.

"More than that, he is dangerous."

"So, that leaves just one question to be answered." Wally said.

"What's that?" M'gann asked.

"If he can best the world's greatest detective, why didn't he do much worse to us when we fought him? Most villains would do their best to hurt us if they had us captured like that. He just…left."

**I'm not exactly sure why I call everyone by their civilian names except for Robin…I just do.**

**This chapter was originally going to be longer, but I went so long procrastinating that I ended it early so that I could have something up before school starts.**


	5. Chapter 5

**Rawr. Life is being weird with me. High school drama time: this guy who I barely know just told me that he is largely infatuated with me and I don't know what to do because I just…I'm so confused. And this is the second time this year this has happened to me. ANYWAY, it was pointed out last chapter that Batman shouldn't have been so easily tricked by Robin. To answer those statements simply, ****he wasn't.**** I have actually written a short, 500 word mini-chapter about that, so if anyone wants to read it, let me know. It **_**probably **_**won't be essential to the plot, but, it's there, if someone wants to read it.**

**Also, just so you know, I feel like advancing the plot now. So here's a brief explanation of what went on that caused this storyline: Robin found out that the xenothium was going to the evil dude, but Batman was doing official Waynetech business and said specifically 'I only want my phone to go off if someone is dying' so instead he went all Red X awesomeness and left a note saying he was going to tutor some kid. So, yeah. That's the best I could come up with.**

**Guys, I did research to write this chapter. I went on youtube and I looked up 'masks' (the first episode with Red X in it) and watched it before I started writing. I did this at midnight, to avoid working on my research paper. Cool beans? Indeed. But after watching, I know how I want Slade and Robin's relationship to work, but not what evil deeds I want them to do. So close and still so far.**

**ONWARD NOW**

**Robin**

Robin didn't know how many times he was going to be able to sneak out like this, especially with the league on the lookout for him. But if he was going to work with Slade, he had to do exactly what he was told, and that meant he was in the middle of a warehouse district in Connecticut at 9:59 pm, waiting to meet up with the villain.

"Right on time. I respect that." The familiar voice came from behind him, and Robin spun on his heels to be face to face with Slade. "Are you ready for your first training session?"

"As I'll ever be." Robin replied, the voice modifier in his mask making his voice unrecognizably deep, which for some reason made him feel safer than his domino mask had lately.

"Excellent. Then we'll get started, shall we? In one of these warehouses, I'll show you in a moment, there is a microchip being stored, hardly bigger than your fingernail, but it stores enough information about Waynetech industries to shut it down from the inside out." Robin stopped breathing at this point.

"Why would we want to do that?" He finally choked out. _'This is not good. This is disastrous. This is blissless. This is-'_

"Oh, we don't. We simply want enough information to find out where some….merchandise is being stored. But I'll tell you more about that when the time comes. First, we will finish the task at hand. Or rather, you will."

"And, how is this training if you're just throwing me in there?"

"I'm a…learn on the job kind of guy. Move along now." Slade began weaving through the warehouses, and even though to Robin they looked the same, he seemed to know exactly where he was going. Eventually, they stopped in the shadows of a seemingly random warehouse. "I must warn you, because of how valuable this chip is, it will be heavily guarded. You could very well be shot, or worse, if you allow yourself to be found. This is your last chance to back out. Moving forward from here means sealing your fate. I cannot guarantee that you will live through any of the training exercises I have for you, nor will I guarantee you will die. It's all a game of chance, and a dangerous one at that. Do you still want to continue?" A large part of Robin's brain said no. This was the part of his brain he called 'Dick Grayson' some of the time, 'Cowardice' some of the time, and 'common sense' the rest of it.

But there was a part, a very small part of Robin's brain, that not only wanted to continue, but was genuinely thrilled at the prospect of going undercover, of officially being free to fight crime his way…of getting to use the voice modifier and hearing his voice sound vaguely like Darth Vader's...and usually, he listened to this part of his brain, and since it usually didn't steer him wrong…

"I'm in. So you want me to break in, get the chip, and get back out again? What's the catch?"

"No catch. Like I said, we simply need it for informational purposes." Robin shrugged before scanning the warehouse, quickly spotting a window he could break in through. Wasting no time, he pulled out his grappling hook and made his way up, sighing when he noticed the window was closed, though he had expected no less. Not wanting to alert anyone to his whereabouts before he even started, he copied the move he had seen done countless times before, cutting a hole in the glass large enough to slip through, and doing just that, before laying the useless circle against the wall. Now he just had to find the chip.

'_Of course he couldn't have mentioned where it was before I went in…oh. Probably there.' _ One of the rooms was being guarded by two heavily armed officers with huge muscles to go with their big guns. _'Well, it seems I have two options. Go for the easier entrance ,alerting them to my presence and making my exit harder, or working a little harder now to save me from being spotted.' _Contemplating for a moment, he chose the second option, though how he could possibly put it into practice escaped him. _'You know what, forget that. I'll just roll with whatever happens.' _

He then proceeded to descend upon the guards, knocking one out with a well placed kick to the head before he'd even noticed Robin was there, and binding the other's arms and legs with his X shaped weapons before he had the chance to get over the shock of a guy falling out of the sky. When he opened his mouth to yell, Robin quickly covered that too.

"Now for the easy part." He said to himself, only to open the door and discover how wrong he was.

**Eh. I don't know what I meant by the ending. It's just one am, and I needed some way to end the chapter, you know?**


End file.
